


Onwards!

by impish_nature



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, Grunkle Ford and Mabel Pines Bonding, cavity inducing fluff balls, dorks utter dorks everywhere, they're so cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 06:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6742189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impish_nature/pseuds/impish_nature
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Birthday present for the lovely @kerbabbles Bit late, sorry hun ♥ I’m getting through the birthday prompts though!<br/>Just a little story of Ford and Mabel going for a little adventure in the woods together and just being utterly adorkable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Onwards!

“Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Ford!”

“Hmm?” Ford looked up just in time from his research as he walked through the door to catch the barrelling whirlwind that was his great niece as she flung herself towards him. “Whoa there! Looks like someone’s excited.” He grinned, giving her a tight squeeze in response before putting her back down and crouching in front of her as she seemed to vibrate with insurmountable energy. “What’s the occasion?”

“Mermando is coming to visit!” Mabel pushed a letter into his hand, practically running round in circles with the green glass bottle tight between her arms as if waiting patiently for him to read it was just too much for her little body to contend with.

“Mermando?” Ford raised an eyebrow as he skimmed the letter in front of him, his other eyebrow joining it in surprise as he connected the dots behind the odd letter and his nibling’s almost nauseating spinning. “Wait, you and Dipper made friends with a merman in the few short weeks you were here? In Gravity Falls of all places?”

“A _cute_ merman, Grunkle Ford!”

“Nope, just Mabel.” Dipper answered Ford’s question when Mabel seemed incapable of doing so through her excitement. He walked passed them, shuffling clumsily through the space they had left in the doorway. He kept his head down, still stuck in his own newly made journal as he scribbled down notes from their latest trip into the woods as if this was every day behaviour from his sister. If Ford was honest with himself, he probably was used to it and this type of excitement was probably not all that unusual for the bright girl. “We’ve always been kind of awkward since I gave him like water CPR or whatever you want to call it.”

“You did what now?”

“That’s not important, Grunkle Ford! What’s important is that he’s coming to visit! And well…”

Ford glanced down at Mabel, his face full of concern as the energy seemed to abruptly leave her. Her hands went behind her back, her foot shuffling forward as she looked up at him hesitantly. “What is it? Is there something I’m missing?”

“No…” Mabel sighed, her hands starting to flail around widely with her words. “It’s just that you and Dipper always go out on adventures together. And we looked through journal 3 this morning and there was nothing on mermaids so I didn’t know it you’d met any and- and Iwonderedifyouwantedtocomewithme?” Her voice went higher and higher with every word as she sped through the last part, leaving Ford a owlishly blinking mess in front of her.

“Mabel, breathe. Only dogs can understand you when you go that high pitch.”

“Ha-ha. Funny Dip-dop, but you insulted yourself there. You and I both know you can still understand me.” Mabel grinned cheekily at the groan she got from the other side of the room before she turned back to Ford. “I wondered whether you wanted to go on an adventure with, well, _me_ for a change, Grunkle Ford?”

Ford blinked at her, the obvious question hanging between them that he hadn’t even known was still an issue. He ruffled her hair, sticking his tongue out at the whine of responding reproach as her hands oushed him quickly away and started to sort out what he’d messed up. “I’d love to, sweetie. Now how about you go get ready? I’m pretty sure you’re missing some sparkly earrings that go rather nicely with that sweater.”

The high pitch happy shriek he got in return was sharp enough to break glass.

 

* * *

 

The happy bubble that was his Mabel seemed to have vanished again the next time he saw her.

He didn’t know whether he’d ever seen her emotions so conflicted when she came to meet him on the porch, all bright and sparkling on the outside, and yet her frown and downcast eyes were at odds with the rest of the picture.

Ford sat down on the porch steps, back to her eye line again and less of a pain than crouching was starting to prove to be for his knees. “Hey? I thought you were all excited to see this boy again? Isn’t it a good thing that’s he’s come to visit?” He didn’t broach the fact that he was starting to understand what it was to be an overprotective family member, already speeches of ‘looking after her’ ringing through his head for if he got this ‘Mermando’ alone.

“Yeah but he’s engaged, Grunkle Ford. I haven’t seen him since I found out.”

Ford blinked owlishly as the back of his nibling hand went to her forehead in a flourish. He could almost hear the heart-wrenching music that he felt should accompany the gesture. If he hadn’t known better, he would have felt like she was telling him an old myth instead of something that was actually happening in real life. But then again, he reminded himself, this _is_ Gravity Falls, anything could happen. “OK, I think you’re going to have to take it slow. My old brain can’t keep up.”

“Wow, I feel like that’s a compliment.” Mabel’s mouth twitched upwards slightly. “Can I tell Grunkle Stan?”

“Never.” Ford tried to keep a straight face but it was hard to when he was getting to see Mabel’s smile again. It felt like his biggest accomplishment in that moment to make her beam.

“OK, well, me and Mermando were sending messages to one another all over the summer since we got him back to his family. But then one day he sent me a message that he was getting married to stop an undersea civil war!”

Ford stayed quiet, completely enthralled.

Now he understood why Stan liked those period soap operas so much.

“So Mermando is getting married to the Queen of the Manatees and she’s so pretty, he’ll forget all about me soon enough!”

“I think that’s pretty impossible.” Ford butt in then, unable to let her continue in that vein. “So it’s an arranged marriage?” He nudged her, sitting at her side as she came right up next to him, the letter still held sadly between her fingers. “Are we breaking him out of that? True love and all, like that movie you showed us last week?”

“No…there’s too much at stake. I can’t have a civil war on my conscience forever! Besides, they’d just come up with another alliance that his marriage could help with if we worked out a way to get him out of it _and_ stop the war.”

Ford stared at her for a few moments, shocked at her mature outlook on the whole ordeal.

But his sudden respect for her maturity was not helping him come up with something to get the smile back on her face and get it to stay put like it was supposed to.

“Hmm…you know. I’m pretty sure we could work that angle.”

“Huh?” Mabel turned to him, her face a perfect picture of perplexity. “Grunkle Ford, have you been drinking Mabel juice again?”

“No, though that stuff is great for creativity.” Ford grinned at her now fairly skeptical expression that obviously thought he was lying to her. Apparently she hadn’t really noticed what that stuff did until someone else drank it. Now she was more wary of her concoction, or at least of Ford getting hold of any. “But Mermando wanted to come see you after what happened in Weirdmaggedon, right? That’s what the letter seemed to say to me anyway.”

“Yeah, he was concerned and wanted to make sure we were all alright after my last letter.”

“Well, now I’m not condoning arranged marriages and you are far too young for any of that stuff-” He shook a well-meaning finger at her, his eyes serious and parental for just a second. “But I’d say that a girl who saved the entire world from destruction is much higher ranking than any Queen or Princess in all the Seven Seas.”

Mabel gasped, her hands going to cover Ford’s mouth quickly as he laughed. “Grunkle Ford! Do you know nothing of undersea etiquette?! You can’t just say that! I’m beginning to regret asking you to come along! What if one of his guards hears you say something like that?”

Ford couldn’t contain the chuckles that overtook him, even if his mind was brimming with questions that he would later ask her about. Like just how much of a diplomat she could fare as in the undersea kingdoms. Hell, maybe she’d found her calling without even realising it. But right at this moment, the funniest thing was how scandalised and blushing she was growing with every moment at his words, unable to truly keep herself from smiling even though she knew she really shouldn’t.

“We are _not_ breaking up their marriage, Grunkle Ford! I am not that kind of person.”

“I know, I know. But I’m just reminding you that you’re worth a lot more than you are giving yourself credit for.” Ford gave a quick look round to make sure they were alone. He wasn’t entirely sure if what he was about to do would go down as a ‘never let you forget’ moment if Stan saw or whether Stan would just fully agree with him and take on the new family jest without any hesitation. He knelt down in front of Mabel when he was sure they were alone, one leg out in front of him and fist tight to his chest as he put himself back in the jovial world of d, d and more d to aid in the roleplay. “Besides. As far as me and your Grunkle Stan are concerned, you’re our Princess. Oh! I know! _The Pines Princess_!”

A high pitch squeal left his little nibling as she curtsied back at him, her eyes alight with the game that she couldn’t control herself from joining in on. She took the hand offered to her, jokingly going along as he kissed her hand, her other hand coming up to her mouth to stem the flow of giggles that threatened to pour forth. She shook her head a few seconds later, pulling her hand away to rest them both on her hips. “As much as I’m loving the fairy tale vibe we’ve got going, I’m not a damsel in distress like in that nerd game you and Dipping sauce play. I can look after myself without a knight in shining armour…though I might pretend for a cute enough one, like that elf from the front cover.”

Ford ignored the last bit, focusing on the other argument as he pondered. “Who said a Princess automatically equals damsel in distress? Have you ever met a Princess? Believe me they are not all waiting in castles for their true loves or whatever other garbage our myths lay out as law for them. Some have a habit of making their own destiny and fighting their own battles. They have a surprisingly high success rate as well, if you ask me vs the knights and Princes who come calling for them.”

“No…wait, does that mean what I think it means?” Mabel practically bounced where she stood, eyes wide and full of interest.

“Well, Sweetie. I’ve travelled the multiverse for 30 years, pretty sure the odds were in my favour that one day I’d meet a Princess.” He poked her on the nose, grinning as she scrunched up her face in response. “None as cute as you though.” He gave a cough, hand scratching at his chin as he gave her another look up and down appraisingly, drawing away from her slightly as he did so. “But we seem to be missing something here…”

Mabel looked down at herself, spinning round slowly as she went. “Really? I don’t think I’ve missed anything.”

“I know!” Ford clicked his fingers, pointing at her in scrutiny as if inspiration had taken over him. Mabel didn’t look convinced yet. “Every Princess needs a steed!” Before Mabel could say anything, he crouched in front of her, back towards her and arms outstretched behind him and gesturing her forward.

“Wait, what? I mean I’m not complaining at all, but-”

“Well if I remember correctly, I ruined unicorns for you.” Ford gestured for her again, feeling small hands tighten around his neck as he grabbed her legs and propped her up in the piggy back ride. “So if I can’t get you a unicorn to ride, then you’ll have to put up with me instead.”

“You didn’t ruin unicorns, they ruined themselves.” Mabel huffed into his neck as Ford stood up, tightening her hold around him.

“Yeah well, could have warned you about them. Or let you keep your happy view of them.”

“But then we wouldn’t have gotten the unicorn hair for the barrier!”

Ford smiled down at the small barrier that still trailed around the Shack. The one that had protected the Shack in its hour of need. “True, can’t argue with that one.” But today was about Mabel, and keeping her happy was his main objective. He fidgeted her, making her jump up and down on his back and heard her give an ecstatic little laugh as she clung to him. “Right, My Lady, I think we should get going before we’re late for your important conference with the Prince of the Merpeople.”

“Right, yes! We can’t be late. Let’s go Fordicorn!”

“…Fordicorn? I don’t think that’s how the name works-oh never mind.”

“Onwards! And while we’re going, you have to tell me about that princess!”

“Hmm…well, which one do you want to hear about first?”

“You’ve met _more_ than _one_ Princess?!”

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Cavity inducing! Or it was for me writing it. In case you didn’t know it was based on this drawing (kerbabbles.tumblr.com/post/138197287017/the-future-is-in-the-past-onwards-grunkle) by @kerbabbles herself. You asked for Ford so I had a quick look through your drawings and thought this one could use a fluffy story to go with it ♥ Happy late birthday friend, I hope you liked it.


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